KAREN RUSSO
'Aesthetics of disappointment'
18 JANUARY – 1 MARCH 2008
Press Release
“The underground world depicted in my work suggests a metaphor for an inner world, where forces, powers and energies interact, as well as a metaphor for a darkened political landscape – a world without light where social healing has to take place.”
ARQUEBUSE is proud to introduce the work of Israeli artist Karen Russo. In her videos, drawing and writing Russo excavates the dark side of human compulsion, both emotional and political. This exhibition will include two major new projects juxtaposed with the acclaimed video ‘Economy of Excess’ filmed inside a sewage system, all dealing with the symbolism and psychology of tunnels.
Filmed in the tunnel under the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Russo’s most recent video entitled ‘The place where remote futures meet remote pasts’ (2008) is the first in a planned 3-part series of videos investigating the traits of the subterranean blind mole-rat, and the history of one of the world’s holiest places. The opening of Jerusalem’s Western Wall tunnel to the public in 1996 inflamed one of the most violent riots in Israel’s history, with Palestinians claiming the tunnel ran beneath the Temple Mount and was therefore a physical threat to some of the most sacred sites in Islam. The bloody events ended up with the death of 70 Palestinians and 16 Israeli soldiers and helped to escalate the political strife in the Middle East.
The work features the artist crawling along a narrow tunnel system, blind-folded and digging using sharp claws made out of metal. This strange mole-woman is juxtaposed with footage of a real mole-rat, a species that lives underground in elaborate tunnel networks, and is highly territorial, aggressive and solitary. When the artist-as-mole detects a second mole-woman a violent struggle ensues.
Karen Russo’s most recent photographic project is a response to her investigation into the compulsion of 75 year old William Lyttle, a London resident fined £100,000 for digging tunnels under his house for over 40 years and who still defends his right to dig. Dubbed the ‘Mole Man’ by local newspapers, Lyttle’s network of tunnels have endangered the foundations of neighbouring structures. Russo’s encounter with this eccentric and aggressive recluse ended in violence against the artist - but the photographic record Russo is left with provides a tantalising glimpse into to the inaccessible world of the unconscious and suggests “…that what you can’t see is more important than what you can, and that a place that could be hell for some is another’s heaven.”
'The place where remote futures meet remote pasts' 2008, video, 3:40 min. (looped). Edition of 5 + 2 AP
'The place where remote futures meet remote pasts' 2008, video, 3:40 min. (looped). Edition of 5 + 2 AP
Wall-mounted text, 28.5 x 37.5 cm, accompanied for 'Mole Man' 2008
'Mole Man I' 2008, C-print mounted on aluminium, accompanied by wall-mounted text, Edition of 3 + 1AP, 78 x 60 cm framed, (A00503)
Wall-mounted text, 28.5 x 37.5 cm, accompanied for 'Mole Man' 2008
'Mole Man III' 2008, C-print mounted on aluminium, accompanied by wall-mounted text, Edition of 3 + 1AP, 78 x 60 cm framed, (A00505)
Wall-mounted text, 28.5 x 37.5 cm, accompanied for 'Mole Man' 2008
'Economy of Excess' 2005, video on DVD, Edition of 4 + 2 AP, 9:00 min., (A00500)